


you're my oasis in the burning sand

by atticboygenius



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, How Do I Tag, Implied Poe Dameron/Finn, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21907798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atticboygenius/pseuds/atticboygenius
Summary: Poe sits down and considers the losses of winning the war with a friend.[Contains spoilers for The Rise Of Skywalker]
Relationships: Karé Kun/Temmin "Snap" Wexley, Poe Dameron & Karé Kun, Poe Dameron & Temmin "Snap" Wexley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	you're my oasis in the burning sand

**Author's Note:**

> i saw tros today im :(
> 
> mr snap wexley it's been an honour sir

_Poe finds Karé next to her X-wing, alone.  
  
_She's resting against a box with engineering tools within and her pilots uniform is getting muddy from the ground beneath. She's fussing with her helmet, touching the side she requested the designer to layer with hand prints. Her's, she remembers asking, and Snap's. She was going to add more to it, she thinks, maybe a child's. She'd have liked that, but not until the war was won (the helmet will never wear those prints now, she thinks bitterly). Karé can see Poe, good friend Poe, old friend Poe, Resistance General Poe, heading her way and the amount of fussing and jittery movements abruptly stops as she stands to attention to welcome the new General.   
  
"At ease, Captain," Poe says and she melts into it. But she doesn't cry, she doesn't make anxious gestures, she barely even breathes and Poe can feel the sorrow radiating from her in waves. Grief surrounding her, aura dark and empty, and alone. They stand together and Poe offers her a hand. She takes it hesitantly, and they sit.   
  
"I'm sorry," Poe says simply.   
  
"Don't," she waves it off, "it's war. It happens."  
  
"Doesn't make it any easier."  
  
Karé pauses and offers him a sympathetic look. They've both lost people today, and Snap was mutual. Friend first, to both, brother second to Poe, and wife second to Karé. "No," she says, releasing a defeated sigh, "It doesn't."  
  
There's silence between them, and Karé surrenders her emotions, pressing her head against Poe's shoulder. He hisses in pain lightly at the pressure against his wounded arm, and Karé apologies but nothing changes. The war is won but defeat hangs in the air, and Poe presses against her in comfort. He should be out there, offering speeches and calling for celebration and making orders to keep the Resistance standing. But a friend is more important right now. He's never seen Karé like this, the vulnerability is rare and new and he delves into it and holds her with everything he's got. It's nothing like how Snap would embrace them, nowhere near, but it's an act of comfort, of friendship, of solidarity. They both have a Snap-sized hole in their heart, they both mourn, but they both go on living. They must.   
  
"I don't know what to do," she says, honestly, burying her face in the crook of Poe's neck and heaving out a sob.  
  
"People die for a cause," Poe says, the word "die" leaves a mark. It stings when Poe says it, and it burns when Karé hears it. But he continues, "and that cause is to live." He moves away from the embrace with Karé and presses his uninjured arm forward, a friend's hand on her shoulder squeezing it in reassurance.   
  
"So live," he says, and Karé smiles, "for Snap, for the Resistance, for me, for yourself; he wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life grieving. He'd want you to live it out as you've always done."  
  
"Are you sure you should be General, Poe?" She asks, and he feigns a look of offence, "not councillor, no?"   
  
"Unfortunately for you, I'm afraid not" he says, using the box to stand and being careful not to injure himself further, he offers Karé his hand one more time and she takes it, standing next to him helmet in hand and solidarity and appreciation and grief in the air. "But if you ever need someone to lend an ear, you know where to look."  
  
"The General's office?"  
  
Poe breathes a sigh of disbelief. "Guess so. But about what I said-"  
  
"No," she interrupts and curses at the fact the conservation has circled back to this topic, "you're right. I will grieve for life though, just not in the way everybody thinks."  
  
"I hear that," Poe replies. Leia, Snap, every name in the Resistance lost to the fight.   
  
"I'll have to take leave though. Tell his mother, if Wedge hasn't already. And just...to think about where I go next."  
  
"That's okay," he says, "the wars over so take all the time you need. The Resistance, _I ,"_ he ponders at the pause, wondering why he took the time to differentiate. He is the Resistance now, he and Finn, the heart and soul - it's moral compass and it's way-finder for it's next steps, "will welcome you back with open arms."  
  
"Never doubted it for a second," Karé grins, "just stop being so formal. And promise me one thing."  
  
"Anything." 

"Honour him," she says, taking his hand and pressing something into it. She rubs her thumb lightly over Poe's fist, and smiles. He doesn't dare open it, not yet. "While I'm gone, when I come back."  
  
Poe looks at her almost dumbfounded. "Always," he says, "when have I ever broken a promise?"  
  
Karé lets out a hearty laugh, offering Poe a shocked reaction with raised eyebrows and widened eyes. "There was that one time in the New Republic during Rapier Squadron's first big mission, and also our first in the Resistance wh-"  
  
He raises his hands in defeat. "Okay! Okay, I get it! But you have my word, Karé, I'm not letting Snap go that easily."  
  
"Nor me," Karé says, and she salutes, "It's been an honour, Poe. Force be with you, General."  
  
"And with you, Captain."  
  
It's one last hug before they separate, an embrace of loss and love, before she walks in the opposite direction to say her goodbyes to what remains of Black Squadron. He turns away, and opens the palm of his hand. It's a picture, small spare one, that Poe assumes Karé always keeps on her. It's of Black Squadron and Poe cherishes it, how Poe was allowed to recruit his own force and hand-picked his closest friends. Many are lost now, and he almost crumples the picture at the thought of it, but they are not forgotten.   
  
Nobody is, not one name. Not one life.   
  
Not while he's in charge.   
  
He'll arrange funerals for those who died destroying the regime, he'll speak at them, he'll respect the families and friends mourning and he'll honour the lost lives of the Resistance. The heart of the Resistance lies with it's members, and Poe won't let the lost souls forget that. He prepares himself for Leia's, and he'll postpone Snap's until Karé returns. They have been in this together since the New Republic, he won't be doing this without her.   
  
He prepares himself to meet with his co-general when he hears a voice. He thinks he's going mad, probably the lack of sleep or the stress of moving from acting-General to the General position itself so quick while mourning everyone he assumes. But it's not, it's Karé and she returns. No spring in her step, he doesn't expect it, but there's a smile on her face.   
  
"Oh, and Poe," she says, and Poe senses the nervousness radiating from her and is fully aware that their conversation is what takes root in the forefront of her mind. It's like she never truly left, and he wonders how much time has truly passed since she offered him the picture. Mourning seems to be life in slow motion.   
  
"One thing the war has taught me is to keep your friends close and to take every chance that life bargains you with," Karé says, and she fusses with her ring, testing it's looseness - prays to the maker that it doesn't fall off as she continues, nodding her head to the distance to indicate the whereabouts of General Finn. Poe sees him and swells up.   
  
"Go get your man while he's still here. Don't pass up that chance. For what it's worth, I'm glad I never did."

**Author's Note:**

> shout at me on tumblr (@jakesimmonds) or twitter (@royallingstones) im lonely and cry over star wars


End file.
